Hi and Happy Thanksgiving (in two days)!
The babka responses have been very encouraging and some of you have already even tried the Kranz Cake shaping variation described in my last post, to great success. Also, lots of great filling variations have been reported, like plumping raisins or dried cranberries in brandy or rum. All good news--I hope some of you make some variation of the Babka for Thanksgiving for your family (not that we'll need the extra calories).
I'm excited about a new biscuit recipe that I made up during a photo shoot yesterday for a local magazine. in fact, they turned out so good that I told the photographer that they were the best I'd ever made and, quite possibly, the best I've ever eaten (a bold statement, having tasted Shirley Corriher's wonderful cloud biscuits as well as those made by my neighbor, Trish, who we call "The Biscuit Queen"). Wasn't planning to include biscuits in the new book but, now that I've made these, I can't resist. So I'm going to try to put the recipe together for testing ASAP to see if you agree. The ingredients are simple but the steps will take me a little bit of time to write up, so expect this to be ready after Thanksgiving, hopefully by Sunday. I'm also hoping to write up a few more recipes by then so that there will be more than one recipe to choose from. We're coming down to crunch time so, once I get a little bit ahead on the recipes, the pace will really pick up.
Some of you have written to say that some of your tester-tasters have been requesting the recipes. I really appreciate how protective you have all been with these and want to thank you for not sharing them outside this circle of testers. This is mainly so that nothing is being released until I have a chance to improve and clarify the writing and directions, and make final tweaks--it would not be fair for a recipe (like a loaf of bread) to get into circulation before it is fully "baked." Thank you all for your understanding and restraint. Also, thanks for refraining from discussing these on the various bread web-discussion groups.
My turkey is brining and there's lots of writing ahead, so check in again this weekend and I'll announce when the next recipes will be ready for testing.
Happy Thanksgiving!!
Peter
